Field of the Invention
This invention provides a method and apparatus for providing interpretation into a chosen one of a plurality of languages for a structured interview, especially the type of interview done by a medical professional (hereafter called the physician, the operator, or the user) with a patient-who does not share a common language, without the necessity of a human interpreter, and without the necessity of the person being interviewed (hereafter called the patient or the respondent) being able to read or write in any language. The terms translation and interpretation are used interchangeably herein.
Medical history taking, physical examination, diagnostic procedures, and treatment all involve verbal communication to some degree. With rapid world-wide travel now being common, patients are often presented to physicians for care who do not have a common language with the physicians. While it is in this context that the inventor approached the problem, the invention could also be used between confessor and penitent, waiter and customer, hotel desk clerk and international customers, or in other situations where multiple unknown languages must be dealt with.
The use of a human interpreter is a good solution to the physician/patient interview, but it has drawbacks. An interpreter may not be available. It may not even be initially clear what language the patient speaks. Interpreters often interfere with the interview process. They may inject their usually poor medical judgment into the interview, or they may be embarrassed by or embarrass the patient with probing personal questions. If the translator is a relative of the patient, embarrassment or outright fabrication of answers may result.
Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, phrase books have been used, and a large set of these for many different languages have been compiled by the United States Department of Defense. These have their drawbacks. Where they are written for the physician to attempt to pronounce a transliteration into a language that the physician is not familiar with, they frequently result in lack of understanding. Pointing to a written phrase in a phrase book requires that the patient be literate, and it is often slow.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,733 to Kumat-Misir, a series of question and answer sheets are provided in two languages, with answers given in one language being generally understandable by reference to sheets in the second language. This would be slow, would require a literate patient, and would not allow the physician to choose the next question based upon the response to the previous question.
There have been efforts, such as represented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,117 to Rondel et al, to provide a number of phrases and sentences in a single foreign language, with provision for the user to attempt in his own language to select one or more of those phrases, and if his selection is recognized as possible, to play out a recorded foreign language version of what the user selected. In Rondel et al, this selection is made by training the device to recognize the user""s voice as a means for making the selection in his own language. This device can operate in only one foreign language unless restructured, and provides no means for questioning a respondent to determine what foreign language would be suitable for an interview. It is also structured to operate only with user voices that it recognizes, making it time consuming at best for a new user to begin using the translator on short notice.
The invention provides a translating machine to enable an operator who is fluent in one language to interview a respondent using a predetermined list of available sentences, which may include questions. This assumes that the respondent speaks any one of a plurality of available languages other than the language in which the operator is fluent, and also assumes that the respondent need not be literate in any language. Translations into each of the available languages of each of the available sentences are stored in advance in a digital form which is convertible into an audio waveform. The available language to be used with a particular respondent is chosen. The user selects individual desired sentences from an alphanumerically stored list which is visually presented to the user. Then, as selected by the user, a translation of the chosen sentences are played out in an audio form to the respondent.
These translations into individual foreign languages were obtained and stored in advance from speakers who were fluent in the individual languages. One of the available sentences is visually presented to the speaker for translation and his spoken translation is recorded. It is then played back for the speaker""s approval, and if approved is accepted for long-term storage. If not approved, the speaker is given additional opportunities for recording his spoken translation until he is satisfied.
When the device is to be used to interview a potential respondent, if the language spoken by that respondent is uncertain, the user plays samples of seemingly probable languages to the respondent to determine which language the respondent chooses. The user then can limit future translations to a given respondent to a language which the given respondent has chosen from the samples. In general, digital audio sentences sufficient to conduct a medical interview in a large number of languages, approximating 25 or 30, can be stored on one CD-ROM disk of the size currently in wide use.